Toward a People's Budget: Vermont Adopts New Vision for State Spending and Revenue Policies
Posted: 05/04/2012 6:42 pm
Almost exactly one year after enacting the United States' first universal health care law, the state of Vermont is once again showing the country that another world really is possible. In the wake of an impressively large and diverse May Day rally for human rights, the state legislature passed an unprecedented amendment to the budget bill that takes steps toward grounding Vermont's budget and revenue policy in human rights. Adopting a key demand of the People's Budget Campaign, run by the Vermont Workers' Center, Vermont's budget is now mandated "to address the needs of the people of Vermont in a way that advances human dignity and equity."
This is the first time that the purpose of a state budget has been defined in terms of human rights principles. The new provision specifies that public money must be raised and distributed with an explicit focus on people's fundamental needs, requiring that "[s]pending and revenue policies ... recognize every person's need for health, housing, dignified work, education, food, social security, and a healthy environment." These human needs lie at the root of social and economic rights protected under international human rights law, which to date have been largely ignored in the United States.
Vermont's first steps toward a People's Budget mark an astonishing breakthrough for a grassroots campaign launched only a year ago, on the heels of the successful Healthcare Is a Human Right campaign. In May last year, Vermont's governor signed a law that committed the state to establish a publicly financed, single-payer-style health care system by 2017. The planning process for implementing "Green Mountain Care" is ongoing; an important debate about the system's financing mechanism will take place later this year. With spending and revenue proposals likely to dominate political discussions, the Vermont Workers' Center aimed to sustain and build on the health care success by launching the People's Budget Campaign under the broad umbrella of Put People First!, a multi-issue grassroots organizing effort designed to link a wide range of people's struggles and unite them through a shared human rights vision.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anja-rudiger/vermont-state-spending_b_1477641.html
